To the Editor of the "Nonmu-Ciina Dany News"
Sint was not without some ule amusement and terest that read the two leiers by "Seventeca™ elemaque™ on! the above Subject. am no arping critic," but I think reply, I wish to, all that
stew words, plainly spoken, on this important matter now overdue. the frat place, with regs tne" comments of *Sevente your worthy correspondent appears, her own confession, 10 be tackling mater of which ihe is herser Timorants, itis be necessary Ciieavour to ascertain inthe" best fay possible what exactly she takes exception to, Mention is made that the present aay "pictures "are. f0'infamaus For their immorality and salacity that I Wonder how these pictures are day after day seen by good respectable people, ele. ete"
Now, Sir, if these Al as your eriite avers, "immoral cious" how' is it that they are after day seen by good respectable people"? I can only ascribe such utter illogicality to the extraordinary weather we have been experiencing lately! "As to the quality of motion pictures, I may state here that I have been 'a film= goer for the past many years—in fact ever since I have been old enough to understand—them—and have yet to come across a film that could be called "immoral" "salacious," "this Including the notorious' "Children under 16, not admitted" variety.
But the main objection of "Seventeen," I take it, is the display of the human form divine. Now, may I ask, and pointedly, was our Creator, (talking our Biblical origin for granted) ashamed of, us when He made us, and in His own likeness? Or were we embarrassed at seeing ourselves as we naturally are' when' in' our primordial existence? 'And further, what was the ver} cause that brought about a change in our attitude in this respect? It was certainly not virtue, but sin. A point, which I am glad' to see, we, of the twentieth century, are' now awakening to. Indeed, this curse of our primeval parents, fostered through the centuries. by sancti monious ignorance, has too long been allowed to confuse and con found us; and it is with the know. ledge of' this, grown of broadened and rationalized views, and a purer understanding of nature—of which is the God of nature~that we are freeing ourselves of the shackles which" have been, almost without our knowledge, the cause of more evil and vice then we are perhaps at first aware of. Or, to put it plainly, what is there about ts that we should be ashamed of? And the beauty of the nude, whether lustrated on the screen or on. canvas, when from this very natural standpoint, could hardly be stigmatized og "immoral" much' less salacious." So much for the question of nudity.
But, of course, if our Rom: Catholic friends choose to see thi wise, they are at full Iberty to do However, lot it be remembered, that inasmuch as the rational do not interfere with them or counteract their views, it is but fair and just that they, too, keep to their side of the fence.
As for "Telemaque," he seems to labouring under the false illusion that we are still living in the years of grace 1843-1901, when the Oriental could be easily' hoodwinked into believing the Occident a second paradise, and its denizens the direct descendants of an Utopian culture. That day has gone, however, and the sooner "Telemaque" realizes this, the better for him, Nor has* the cinema been responsible to any great degree for this, 'Modern education, acquired in the West by students from the East, has done the main work of calling off the Occidental bluff, and any amount of dust thrown' into their eyes by some very "well meaning" People can and will not hide anything. Instead, it is far better follow the good council of St. Paul and "confess our sins to one another;" for, indeed, it is only with the understanding and full comprehension of their magnitude that any possible steps for their rectification can, be made. And, in passing, I may say that the very cause for Asiatic, decay is ascribable mainly to the lack of this spirit: the fear of facing"the facts, and the hiding rather than. rectification of ones! faults, thus falling even deeper into the morass, A danger which, it pleasing to note, the wiser of the West are strictly avoiding.
And, as a vital means for this self-cleaning, I see 20 other instrument better sulted to it then thet modern pulpit—the motion picture. A. frank and fearless pulpit it is, unsullied by Pharisaic "sub-cretinism of any kind, showing us plainly the faults that have grown around us and the means by which they can be overcome. Indeed, a no finer sermon could be preached anywhere or driven home more convincingly then through the cinema of to-day.
But the point at issue goes further then the cinema. It is a matter that involves our very moral. autonomy and the protection of our personal Tights as free moral entities. The world is facing a new danger of coming under dictatorships, political or religious, or both, a reversion to mediaevalism and" subjection quasi-moral serfdom, against which the morally free struggles. And moral subjection" "or "compunetion" could never be moral, for the very application of force makes it immoral. And moral autonomy. is not possible where moral freedom does not exist. It is the "truth that makes us free" as the ancient sages of the East tell us, and moral freedom as much a necessity to-day as political freedom ever was. And morality, unless come of a free thought' and will is never truly moral; a point of which I am glad to see the Anglo-Saxon world, with their Inherent love of liberty, "are champions.
These simple, yet all-important points. the Oriental moral philoso-hers have made clear to us, begining with the Christ Himself.
Or, to reiterate what I have said, and fuller, it is not the law or the application of the law, but the free offering of the heart' only that is acceptable to God. Or, to put it laconically, Monat, Avrononty, Shanghai, July 18,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.